Kidney Diet Tips

Kidney Diet Tips: How Much Potassium in Salad Greens?

What’s not to love about a cold salad served in a chilled bowl with your favorite salad dressing? Today’s kidney diet tips will help if you’re following a low potassium diet but love salad greens.  As you can see from the chart below, all the salad greens listed are less than 200 mg potassium for a 1 cup portion.  Mix and match the ones you like best. The goal is to stay below 200 mg potassium for one salad.  If you want a larger portion, select the lowest potassium greens, arugula and green or red leaf lettuce.

Salad Greens Portion Potassium Phosphorus Sodium Protein
Arugula 1 cup

74

10

5

.5

Butterhead 1 cup

131

18

3

.7

Endive 1 cup

157

14

11

.6

Green leaf 1 cup

70

10

10

.5

Iceberg 1 cup

102

14

7

.7

Looseleaf 1 cup

108

16

15

.8

Red leaf 1 cup

52

8

7

.4

Romaine 1 cup

116

14

4

.6

Watercress 1 cup

112

20

14

.8

Unfamiliar with some of these greens? Go to Cooks Thesaurus foodsubs.com,  to see pictures.

Salad greens are naturally low in sodium, but the wrong dressing can really boost the sodium content. When selecting a salad dressing buy low sodium commercially prepared dressing. Better yet, homemade salad dressings are easy to make,  inexpensive and contain no additives. Try one of these DaVita.com salad dressing recipes:

Basic Salad Dressing

Cranberry Dijon Vinaigrette

Creamy Vinaigrette

Italian Dressing

Oil and Vinegar Salad Dressing

Tarragon Vinaigrette

Additional Kidney Diet Resources

Visit DaVita.com and explore these diet and nutrition resources:

DaVita Food Analyzer

DaVita Dining Out Guides

Today’s Kidney Diet Cookbooks

DaVita Kidney-Friendly Recipes

Diet and Nutrition Articles                                                      

Diet and Nutrition Videos

Kidney Smart® Virtual Classes

This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment. Consult your physician and dietitian regarding your specific diagnosis, treatment, diet and health questions.

Sara Colman, RDN, CDCES

Sara Colman, RDN, CDCES

Sara is a renal dietitian with over 30 years experience working with people with diabetes and kidney disease. She is co-author of the popular kidney cookbook "Cooking for David: A Culinary Dialysis Cookbook". Sara is the Manager of Kidney Care Nutrition for DaVita. She analyzes recipes and creates content, resources and tools for the kidney community. In her spare time Sara loves to spend time with her young grandson, including fun times together in her kitchen.